X5 Vs Thea...

[Sledge]

Thanks for the info Kath.

I also noticed a distinct lack of definition in the adjoining room in the Phoebe RT. As you indicate that the setup is essentially the same, I would gather that with X5 one would have to also then buggerise around with lighting in that room. Is this the correct assumption?

[dr0591]

Yes, if I were running this for real in Phoebe, rather than as a straight comparison, I would tweak the lighting in the theater room, and adjust the material properties of the leather seats in both rooms. Also try to work on the desktop material. That's supposed to be honed black marble, but it just looks blah to me -- in BOTH versions.

I don't know how to fix Phoebe's brushed nickel problem. Any suggestions on that would be welcome.

The lights don't transfer exactly from Chief to Thea, so it's possible that I have the lighting level set higher in the Thea theater room than it was in the Chief version. They're not on similar scales, so it's hard to compare the two.

[Chad Cardin]

Thanks Kathleen!

See your the expert in raytracing, these are just my first few, so I was actually laughing when you mentioned the flowers because I didnt even see that detail, Im going to have to go back and look at that. See your use to seeing all these details in raytraces, I have to pick up that talent quickly!

As for your pics you posted I like #2 the best. How would it compare if you used only X5, only phoebe and only thea? Im not sure if thats impossible due to incompatibility for textures but I would be interested how they each look, like you did with this comparison.

Thanks for adding value to the thread, your expertise on the raytracing brings a good analysis of several programs.

[Chad Cardin]

Kathleen,

Now Im wanting to find these stupid flowers haha! The only one I could find with outside flowers was my first one I posted on page 1, is this the one your talking about? I went in the plan assuming thats the one and I put the flowers over a bed of dirt that was over the grass. The flowers did say they were at 0. Maybe its the affect of the garage angling out?? Maybe Im not even on the same pic as your describing. Let me know though because I really want to correct this, so I dont look like a tool when showing my pics!

[dr0591]

Kathleen,

Now Im wanting to find these stupid flowers haha! The only one I could find with outside flowers was my first one I posted on page 1, is this the one your talking about? I went in the plan assuming thats the one and I put the flowers over a bed of dirt that was over the grass. The flowers did say they were at 0. Maybe its the affect of the garage angling out?? Maybe Im not even on the same pic as your describing. Let me know though because I really want to correct this, so I dont look like a tool when showing my pics!

Chad, the image I was looking at was this one:

You need to see what height your terrain is set to and set the height of the plants to match. You can pull one flower down in 3D until it starts to disappear into the terrain, then open it up and see what the "height above ground" is (it will most likely be a negative number). Then group-select all the other flowers and plants and put the same number for all of them.

[Chad Cardin]

Chad, the image I was looking at was this one:

You need to see what height your terrain is set to and set the height of the plants to match. You can pull one flower down in 3D until it starts to disappear into the terrain, then open it up and see what the "height above ground" is (it will most likely be a negative number). Then group-select all the other flowers and plants and put the same number for all of them.

Kathleen,

Yeah I was wondering what was going on with the roses along side the sidewalk, they didnt have any shadows and your right it was hard to find out where the ground was in the pic. I assumed just having it zero was right but I like your method better. Im going to do just that, thanks for the advice and help with it!

[dr0591]

You also need to set the sun to be almost directly behind your camera if you want the 2D plants to cast shadows. They are all oriented to face the camera, which means that if the sun is coming from the side, they will only cast a very thin line as a shadow -- or maybe nothing at all, like your rosebushes.